Create Your Own App - Engage and Acquire Customers

Dan Zarrella, Social Media ResearchBlog & News | ContentToolsAre You Interested To See How Interactive Content Can Help Your Business? Click below to receive your one-on-one consultation Receive My Consultation The marketing team carries a heavy responsibility, and their efforts often either boost or tank sales and revenue tactics. No pressure, right? On your trek to becoming an interactive content marketing superstar, your team must hit on several points for the initiative to thrive. Marketing teams that decide to incorporate interactive content marketing into their campaigns must answer questions like “What type of interactive content will we use?” Marketing teams who keep their eyes on the ball, and realize “the ball” is the bottom line, understand the importance of content in audience engagement, brand awareness, and lead conversion. Since cavemen decide to draw pictures on their walls with rocks, there has been content. “88% of marketers say interactive content is effective at differentiating their brand.”

SurveyMonkey: Kostenloses Softwaretool für Onlineumfragen & -fragebögenHow to Network with Influential People Using TwitterDo you want to use Twitter to promote your business? Are you looking for ways to build relationships that matter on Twitter? In this article, you’ll discover how to build a strong Twitter community with influencers, which will benefit your business. Building Connections With Twitter Using Twitter to help your company grow isn’t about the number of followers you have. It’s about building a community of followers who are passionate about your industry and who eventually become passionate about your brand. The quickest and easiest way to develop a relevant Twitter community that grows your company is to find connectors and build relationships with them. Connectors are called many things: thought leaders, industry experts, etc. You can benefit from forming relationships with connectors on Twitter. By building relationships with influencers, you increase the chances of gaining your customer’s ear and building your own strong community. #1: Find the Influencers in Your Current Network

Top 10 Sales & Marketing Innovations of the Past 10 YearsTop 10 Sales & Marketing Innovations of the Past 10 Years Sales Leaders have experienced a lot change in the past 10 years. Some have embraced it and some are still in denial. This blog represents a test. Look at the top 10 innovations and ask yourself each question below. Is your team embracing each trend or fighting them? As you go through the ten, grade yourself as a leader. The Top Innovation Improvement Resources will help you improve in each area listed below. Top 10 Sales Innovations The Smart Phone: Are you utilizing content that is mobile friendly? You could argue that a couple of these existed prior to 10 years ago. Top 5 Most Obsolete Sales Practices: Solution Selling - developed in the 80s when hair bands were popular.Cold Calling – using a more strategic approach is probably a better use of time.Relying on a PC – everything a rep did on a PC should now be mobile enabled. What do all of these tell us? If you fall behind the competition, it will be difficult to catch up.

6 New & Innovative Social Media Campaigns to Learn FromWe're always on the lookout for innovative social media campaigns at Mashable. This week we scoured the web and our Twitter feeds to find some of the most interesting campaigns out there. From utilizing online video in an inventive way to creating a unique presence on Facebook, these six social media campaigns are some of the most original pieces of work as of late. 1. Ad agency Amsterdam Worldwide unveiled the first in a series of blogger films, called “Visual Life,” for technology brand Intel back in January 2011. The first video of the series documented the work of fashion blogger and photographer Scott Schumann, The Sartorialist. The video went viral when it was embedded on The Sartorialist blog, but also gained a lot of views from Facebook, The Cool Hunter and mobile devices. This week, the campaign launched its most recent video (embedded above), which documents the role technology plays for two young Chinese wedding photographers, Kitty and Lala. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Your Picks

Keyword Tool: FREE Alternative to Google Keyword PlannerHow To Make Your Instagram Photo Visible On Twitterby Anthony Quintano on Jan 11, 2014 Originally published on AnthonyQuintano.com Many of you know that in 2012 Instagram pulled the function that allowed users to view Instagrams just like any photo embedded inside Twitter. Here is a workaround to make sure your Instagram that you share on Twitter gets more RT’s than just a Tweet with the Instagram url. 1. 2. 3. Crop your Instagram photo so only the photo is visible. 4. This does take up more character space but worth it since Tweets with just the Instagram URL have a tendency not to be retweeted as much as one with a visible photo. UPDATE: There are other options to do this that some think are easier.

LinkedIn Connections With Customers Leads to More Business, Study SaysIn a 2013 Sales & LinkedIn Survey, we found out lots of great info on how top sellers are leveraging LinkedIn. (Download Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code). One statistic that really stood out was the difference in LinkedIn connections with customers. As you can see, top sellers were connected to almost 3x as many customers as everyone else who took the survey. But here’s an even starker contrast. Does it matter? Going Deep & Wide. ”After a phone sales presentation, I go to LinkedIn and send that person a request to connect. Having more contacts within an account increases your likelihood of getting in and getting to the right person. By all means, connect with your customers!

5 Content Marketing Strategies for Small BusinessThis post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. One of the most effective, lowest-cost ways to drive traffic and build awareness for your business is through content marketing: creating and distributing relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience. Content marketing can run the gamut from publishing status updates and photos on Facebook Pages and Twitter, to writing compelling blog posts and posting videos on YouTube. Popular types of content you can start with include how-to articles and videos, Q&As, behind-the-scenes looks at your business, photos and videos showcasing your work and first-hand accounts of your staff participating in local or industry events. While many businesses have already tried a hand at content marketing, not all have been successful at getting their content found, consumed and shared. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

River Instagram Tool Blog - Instagram search and engagement tips for brandsWhen I started having fun with Instagram I didn’t know much. I heard that Instagram is great for brands, but what I didn’t feel right is that Instagram is a good fit for the tech business like ours which is not about pretty photos. At Colibri IO (a tech startup that loves creating marketing tools like River) we don’t really have that much to … Continue reading How to build a brand on Instagram in 7 easy steps First of all, thank you all for over 92300 replies to our survey (WOW! In short, Instagram is probably the best medium that allows you to bring your brand closer to your audience. Instagram posts (on average) generate a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%. Instagram is cool way to connect with your socially engaged consumers.

Digital Marketing Blog | Connecting With the Perpetually Connected Customer: Part IIIn the first part of this blog post, I described per­pet­u­ally con­nected cus­tomers, also known as per­pet­u­als, who use smart­phones, tablets, and PCs. In Change This, dig­i­tal ana­lyst and futur­ist Brian Solis explains that these early adopters of the lat­est trends are “con­nected to each other and the world-at-large, they’re also con­nected to tech­nol­ogy. They are born digital-first.” Let’s quickly review the three ways to con­nect with per­pet­u­als that I cov­ered last week: 1) Under­stand Their Immu­ni­ties to Tra­di­tional Marketing First, per­pet­u­als are immune to tra­di­tional mar­ket­ing strate­gies such as the ubiq­ui­tous ban­ner ad. 2) Think About How to Regain Their Trust Sec­ond, their default stance toward mar­keters is this: I don’t trust you. 3) Rise to Their Level of Expectation Third, per­pet­u­als are prone to frus­tra­tion if ser­vices and infor­ma­tion are not timely, effi­cient, has­sle free, and con­ve­nient. 5) Think Like a Dig­i­tal Disrupter

HOW TO: Use Social Media for RecruitingThis post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Finding the right candidate for a job is like finding a new apartment: timing, finances and quality all have to align just right. And somehow, the pool of options always seems to feel both prohibitively large and prohibitively limited at the same time. So, in both types of searches, online tools have become invaluable. But while tweeting out a call for a good real estate agent is fairly straightforward, using social media for recruiting has nuances that, if overlooked, can render the process far less useful. Here are a few key pointers from experts in the field to remember when getting started. 1. Simply tweeting out a link to a job posting might get you some viable candidates, but to really make sure you’re reaching your target audience, it’s important to cultivate your personality as an employer early on. 2. 3.